They taught to pull the charging handle with the firing hand because its smoother. While in the prone you would not be able to pull the charging handle well with the stabilizing hand and move the hand/ arm to your right side. Notice the forward assist is on the right you will have to release your right hand anyways but at lease you can keep the weapon stable.

While in the prone you would not be able to pull the charging handle well with the stabilizing hand and move the hand/ arm to your right side. Notice the forward assist is on the right you will have to release your right hand anyways but at lease you can keep the weapon stable.

Question: with your "slap magazine" aspect of the drill, how often were you/are you finding this does one of more of the following:

1. unseats rounds
2. damages the magazine
3. damages the underside of the bolt carrier or the inner sides of the upper receiver walls where the magazine comes to rest below the carrier
4. damages the magazine retaining lug (or the magazine at the same point)

I suppose that repeated smacking could cause feed lip deformation in Aluminum magazines over time, but I have not personally experienced any sort of damage to the weapon or magazines. When you are holding the weapon with one hand and slapping the bottom of the mag with the other there just isnt enough leverage to really do that kind of damage. Plus,the idea is to give it a good firm "smack"...not to really blast it.

The movement is designed to be a quick/gross motor skill vs. say grabbing it "beer can" style and checking the seating.

I've almost never had a problem with my mag not being fully inserted. I don't really know why people say it's supposed to be one of the most common sources of a stoppage. I probably get double feeds more commonly than I fail to insert a mag fully.